In a photolithography process in an electronic device fabrication process for, for example, a semiconductor, a liquid crystal display or the like, a coating and developing apparatus which performs coating and developing of a resist liquid on a wafer or a glass substrate, and an exposure apparatus which performs an exposure process on the wafer or glass substrate coated with the resist liquid are combined, and an inline process is carried out.
The coating and developing apparatus, the exposure apparatus and the inline process are disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 2000-188253.
The inline process at the field of device fabrication is often carried out in a multi-vender environment where apparatuses of different makers are connected inline to each other.
In an environment where an exposure apparatus of a maker A and an exposure apparatus of a maker B are connectable to a coating and developing apparatus, for example, depending on the makers of the exposure apparatuses, the communication timings thereof differ, disabling a smooth operation; for example, a Send signal is set to an ON state before the coating and developing apparatus performs wafer transfer (the Send signal becomes an ON state, then a wafer is transferred) in communication between the exposure apparatus of the maker A and the coating and developing apparatus, whereas the Send signal is set to an ON state after wafer transfer (the Send signal becomes an ON state when transfer of a wafer is finished) in communication between the exposure apparatus of the maker B and the coating and developing apparatus.
In general, assignment of connector pins of a communication cable differs depending on the makers. For instance, the specification, such as assignment of a signal name, often differs even for the same pin number, like the connector pin of a specific pin number of the exposure apparatus of the maker A being assigned to an error signal while the connector pin of the same pin number of the exposure apparatus of the maker B is assigned to a lot end signal.
Accordingly, the maker of the coating and developing apparatus sets data of the coating and developing apparatus beforehand according to an apparatus to be connected at the destination of delivery before delivery of the coating and developing apparatus.
At the field of device fabrication, however, a connected partner apparatus, e.g., an exposure apparatus, may be changed to the one of another maker or the internal software of the exposure apparatus may be changed to a different specification. In this case, the coating and developing apparatus should reset the internal software according to a new exposure apparatus. In the resetting, conventionally, a changing work or input setting is carried out manually (manual operation) by an operator.
In case of coping with it through the manual operation by the operator, however, human mistakes are inevitable, and the inline process of the coating and developing apparatus and the exposure apparatus may not be executed smoothly, as in a case where, for example, necessary changes are not made to the software setting even if the exposure apparatus is changed, or erroneous setting occurs in changing the software setting.
In such a case where the inline process is not executed smoothly, for example, a wafer is broken and the rate of occurrence of defective products becomes higher, thus leading to a reduction in yield.
When a trouble, such as a failure, occurs in an inline-connected exposure apparatus, the coating and developing apparatus is set to a standby mode, is powered off or so by the manual operation of the operator.
However, there is a risk of performing an inadequate process such that the operator reactivates the coating and developing apparatus from the standby mode without recovery of the failure of the exposure apparatus.